From: hwabnig@.-   
      
   On Fri, 23 Feb 2018 14:55:53 -0800, etpm@whidbey.com wrote:   
      
   >    My shop is a steel building similar to a quonset hut. The pipes to   
   >my bathroom sink run down inside one of the deep corrugations. The   
   >bathroom walls are covered in drywall which in turn is covered with   
   >thin sheets of vinyl covered Masonite.   
   >    I insulated the pipes before covering them with the drywall. I   
   >then put insulation down inside the corrugations to insulate the   
   >walls. But I think some rodents got into the insulation. Whatever   
   >happened when the temp drops below about 30 degrees the bathroom pipes   
   >will freeze.   
   >   I am not eager to tear into the wall to find the problem. So I   
   >leave the taps slightly dripping when the weather gets too cold. I now   
   >have a little water heater under the sink so that the main water   
   >heater is off most of the time. I turn off the under sink heater when   
   >the tap is dripping.   
   >   So my system works except when I forget to leave the water   
   >dripping. And I did that yesterday.  Coming in to work this morning I   
   >discovered the frozen pipe problem. Besides the hassle of no water one   
   >day the pipes are going to burst and then I WILL need to tear into the   
   >wall.   
   >   But maybe I have hit on a solution. The water pipes going into the   
   >main water heater are connected to each other with a heavy copper wire   
   >just before the heater connections. This is to comply with the   
   >building code.   
   >   So I figured if I connected some power to the pipes right at the   
   >wall stops I could maybe get them to heat up enough to thaw them. I   
   >measured the resistance from stop to stop and it was 4 ohms. The stops   
   >are plumbed to the sink taps with plastic pipe so I know the   
   >resistance I measured was through the supply pipes.   
   >   So I plugged in a Variac, plugged my battery charger into the   
   >Variac, and connected the battery charger leads to the wall stops.   
   >Then I dialed up the voltage until the charger was putting out about   
   >18 amps. Checking about an hour later I see water is now flowing from   
   >the taps.   
   >   So now I need to wire up a transformer controlled by a thermostat   
   >to keep those in wall pipes warm. No more dripping taps!   
   >     Anybody want to tell me why this is a bad idea?   
   >Thanks,   
   >Eric   
      
   Yes they did that in the olde times   
    when they used metal pipes throughout.   
   Today we have plastic pipes.   
      
   w.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)